Dear Family and Friends,
How crazy.
Chancay
is as beautiful as ever. The humidity has made my skin a lot smoother
and the sun, a lot tanner, so I hardly use makeup now. I finally got a
watch. It broke. Im going to go buy another one today. Here are some
things Ive gotten used to...
In
Peru you greet everyone with a kiss on the side of their cheek. As
missionaries we can only greet sisters this way, but not men. Several
times when you hold out your hand to a man, he will grab it and lean in
to the side of your face, but then when I say )Oh, sorry only like this)
and shake their hand and explain why, they get super embarassed. I
always feel a little bad but I laugh a little bit at the same time on
the inside because then they wont even look at you.
I
wish I could describe how Chancay sounds. I love the way the members
call us )Hermanitas.)..or little sisters. Sometimes on the streets
people will call out to us )Elderes!) We wave because they just have
never seen )Hermanas) before. They just recognize that we are in a pair
and are wearing the same kind of plaque.
Every
now and then they have a funeral procession in the streets. They walk
the body through the streets in their casket to the grave site on a hill
just within city limits. The music that the band plays in the streets
though is always a little bit happy.
At the market there
is always a lady that calls out )Juevitos!) Her voice is extremely
nasally, and I always smile when I hear her. Im not sure what kind of
eggs she sells but they are tiny. I think I will miss her in Chancay.
Then
there is this boy ..Christian. He is mentally disabled and he isnt a
member but everyone knows who he is. The stores that line the street
hand him fliers and he passes them out. Sometimes he will kiss your
hand and ask for money. He is someone else Im going to miss.
Every morning at like
3 a.m. we wake up to roosters. For the record, they dont sound very
pretty. I should send you a picture. They are right across from our
house on the roof of the house of our neighbor.
The
other day I woke up and we opened the doors for some fresh air. It
smelled like fish. It was so strong. My companion kept asking why it
smelt like that. I didnt know what to say. Finally I told her. )I
think I know why it smells like fish.......Im so sorry!!!) I explained
how the night before I had drained a can of tuna in the sink outside.
But I had no idea it would smell that bad in the morning. Haha. Well
thankfully the President of the Rama explained. He said )Ahh smells
like money). We were confused.. )money?) Yes. He told us how it smelt
like fish because the factory was working to can and process all the
fish they had. The majority of people in Chancay are either fisherman
or work at the fish factory so it meant that everyone would be getting
paid. haha.=)
Recently,
Chancay and Peravillo, two different cities, were combined for one
ward. Together in these two areas we have 1,000 inactive members.
Really our work here right now is just trying to strengthen this ward.
There are people who have testimonies and then get baptized but then
when they dont have the support of visiting teachers or even teachers
for classes, they go inactive. Its really sad. The last president of
the Rama right now is inactive. There is a huge lack of Priesthood
holders. Im super excited though because now that these two ward are
combined we have enough people to lead each class in church and for
leaders to have counselors too!
I
got a new companion two weeks ago. Sister Moody. She is awesome. She
has 7 months in the mission now. She can at least communicate with the
people really well and understand basically everything but hergas... er
slang.. Yes, she is white like my first companion. Because of this we
again get a lot of attention. Her hair is blonde and her eyes are blue.
One day we took a tally of how many people cat called or said
something else creepy to us. We counted 24. One day the elders were
walking with us back from a service activity. One guy practically did a
180 when we walked by. They told us it looked like he was going to eat
me. I know this sounds ridiculous but honestly this is probablly one of
my biggest trials in Peru.
I guess its nice that people think you are pretty, but it doesnt help my self esteem. I really just feel like a piece of meat.
The good thing is that Hermana Moody and I both want to work really hard to help this area.
Unfortunately
there was an elder that everyone knows, but in name only. He baptized
86 people on his mission and 22 of them were in Chancay. All but two
are inactive. He never taugh the commandments. He only taught that
people needed to get baptized. I know people have been saying this my
whole life but if any future missionaries out there are reading this,
DONT DO THAT. Please. And dont be the companion that lets your
companion do that. I cant tell you how difficult it is trying to figure
out where everyone lives. Its practically impossible. The work here
really is finding these people who got baptized and then never even went
to church. Sometimes I wonder if I will never see someone hear about
the gospel for the first time and be baptized because I will be working
so much with inactives and strengthening the ward and teaching them how
to strengthen eachother.
Anyway, Im learning a lot from Hermana
Moody. I am only her second companion. This is supposedly going to be
really common though. Because there are so many new sisters who are
going to be coming in, Ive been told by multiple people that as soon as
Im done being trained, I will be training. Im nervous but I know it
will really help me burst out of my bubble. I want to do my best because
I know I will never get an opportunity like this again. Today I put a
scripture on my agenda so that I would always remember it. It says
Perfect love casteth out fear. Whenever Im scared to talk about someone
about the gospel, I can just remember that I dont have to be scared,
because I have absolutely nothing to be ashamed about in what Im
sharing, and if I really care about people and love them the way God
commanded us to, I would share what I know brings so much happiness.
Something else I learned is that if you cease to act, you will destroy
faith. I dont want that to happen. Often I am reminded of the song
)Armies of Helaman.) I love how we can sing ) We are Now the Lords
Missionaries) It reminds me that now is the time to act. But really, it
is always the time to act. We will never learn, we will never grow, we
can never change for the better if we dont act in faith.
Also, its time for me to step up
and open up my heart and share my experiences. I realize that when I
dont open up, the investigator doesnt really understand how much the
gospel has influenced my life. Too often I think that they dont want to
hear a life story, but when they hear it and can truly understand how
the gospel has changed me, they can see how the gospel can help them
too.
I am always inspired by some of the
strongest members here. I ran out of time, but I promise that next
email, I will write some more about the investigators and members.
These people have become my world. I sometimes feel like I just have
to set the stage so everyone understands what its like down here.
Let me just say that I know that God is a God of miracles. They happen every day.
Love Always,
Hermana Bendixen
